Fascinating food in New York and occasionally farther afield

Gowanus/Greenwood Heights

Snowcapped in confectioner's sugar like their counterparts at Cafe Du Monde, Booqoo's beignets are rounder and more regular in appearance but just as hot and fresh from the fryer. Recommended pairing: a side of caramel sauce flavored with chicory coffee.

Three of us, three "piatti della nonna" — that was the plan. Huddled in one corner of the menu, these traditional Neapolitan "grandmother's dishes" were well-suited to a brisk damp night. Two were prepared with elbow pasta; the third and best (below, $15) partnered cut spaghetti with egg, pancetta, and peas. Almost as an afterthought, we added a pair of antipasti: burrata-topped crostini and polipo alla griglia (above, $13), grilled octopus dressed with garlic and olive oil, and superlative in tenderness. If we had skipped the tiramisu, for all its charms, and instead started and ended our meal with octopus, I wouldn't have complained.

Always in fashion: The pork-beef-garlic-onion frita Cubana ($11) is dressed in a cascade of potato sticks; a behind-the-scenes coating of "special sauce" helps them cling in place. Also shown: the best Cuban sandwich in town ($11). You can't rush it; figure on 10-12 minutes, so it's not only pressed flat but also piping hot, through and through. Both sandwich and burger are accompanied by mariquetas, super-slim rounds of crispy-fried green plantain. Wash them down with an Ironbeer, or a Materva.

On a expedition to California some years ago, I'd wondered why the Hangtown fry is so scarce in New York, since bacon, eggs, and oysters, the three essential ingredients, are certainly in ready supply. A visit to John's Grill, in San Francisco, offered a big fat clue: Large, moist, briny "Washington" oysters (the most descriptive name my waitress could offer) seem to be the key. Smaller, firmer East Coast varieties are generally too chewy to fill the bill.

Perhaps as a concession to the limitations of its shellfish, Sea Witch scrambles the principal ingredients together rather than gently enclosing the oysters in an omelette. It's a brusque presentation ($9), but not without local charm — a side order of kielbasa ($3) that nods to the bar-restaurant's longtime Polish neighbors.

(This venue is closed.) The menu is a collaboration between a Hong Kong-born owner and a chef, of Mexican and Salvadorian descent, who has traveled through and cooked in China and Southeast Asia. One happy consequence: char siu married with flavors from both East and West.

This block-long artwork brightens the southward view of a concrete plant operated by Quadrozzi Enterprises, which helped sponsor the mural, and the elevated station at Smith and 9th. The pineapple has plenty of company, but at least one local edible is missing from the picture: The mulberry, represented by the trees at the far left of the first, wide-angle photo. In early summer, the branches were filled with fat purple berries, though you wouldn't want to make a meal of them. The grayish-blue background, in the final photo, is the water of the Gowanus Canal.

"Pineapple Mural"Ruth Hofheimer (2013), in collaboration with the Gowanus Canal Conservancy and some 60 volunteersHuntington St. east of Smith St., Gowanus, Brooklyn

For a late afternoon nosh this honey molasses pork belly (periodic special, $8 per quarter-pound) shared my tray with brisket. Tough luck for the brisket, which in lesser company could be a standout and even so was quite good with just a little sauce. The pork belly, by contrast, wanted for nothing; unadorned tidbits filled my mouth with lush flavor.

The murcott ($2.49 per pound) is a hybrid of the common sweet orange and the mandarin, though evidently with much more of the mandarin's genes. This compact fruit has a thin, easily removed peel and minimal "rag" around the segments; it's seedless, or nearly so. For a citrus this California-raised fruit has a rich flavor, with just a little acid to take the edge off the sweetness.

Also shown: two views from the roof deck, of solar panels, wind turbines, and Lower Manhattan, and of a familiar Brooklyn skyline. Come a season when we don't need citrus fruit to remind us of sunny weather, the deck will be much more inviting.

Occasion: a late afternoon coffee stop between a big lunch and an unexpected engagement for dinner. I was wondering aloud about the wildlife on the expansive mural (only a small section is shown here) on the sunny, south-facing wall outside Root Hill. My barista explained that the mural, designed by the artist Katherine Gressel and executed with the collaboration of neighborhood children, depicts animals that once might have lived in the marshy habitat nearby before the waters became too polluted. Most of those animals must be long gone, my barista added — and even if they return to the canal, I'm not sure I'm ready to sample Gowanus crayfish.